Singapore is winning big thanks to the new casinos

Six months ago, Singapore's history took a crucial turn when it opened the first of its two casino resorts that cost US$10 billion to build.

Today, both of them seem to be packing the crowd in, including high rollers who believe that they have to bet big to win big.

So far the winners are Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and, of course, the Singapore economy.

Like their peers elsewhere, the new industry here is beginning to accumulate something resembling its own Hall of Misfortunes.

On top of the list is local businessman Henry Quek, who lost SG$26.3 million after a few day's work at the baccarat table in the Malaysian-owned Sentosa casino.

According to Today newspaper, his misadventure began in March only a few weeks after its launch when he was granted a credit line of SG$500,000.

It was eventually raised higher and higher to SG$2 million, and his losses mounted.

At one stage, his girl companion cried for the casino to stop providing him any more credit.

In a single day, the managing director of a seafood-processing and trading company had lost SG$18million, playing at SG$400,000 a hand.

Quek, in his 50s, initially lost a larger amount, but managed to reduce it to SG$16.3 million, a close friend told a reporter.

He has since paid part of it, but still owes the operators SG$11 million.

The mustachioed Quek is also the president of the Seafood Industries Association Singapore. Normally loud-talking, he is now rather quiet, according to his high-roller friend.

There have been others. Two days later, Chinese newspapers reported that Taiwan pop star Jay Chou lost SG$2 million playing at Marina Bay.

An online source said 12 gamblers had chalked up unpaid losses of SG$5-11 million, and about 200 Malaysians and Chinese still had unpaid losses ranging from SG$500,000 to SG$2 million.

Blogger Merl Haggard reported he knew of another wealthy Singaporean who was worth “at least SG$300 million” also lost SG$26 million at Sentosa, but there has been no confirmation.

Despite disincentives, Singaporeans are believed to make up one third of the total casino gamblers.

The rest are foreigners who come from Malaysia, China and the region.

There have been winners, too, but unlike losers — the big ones are often publicized. The most common are winnings of SG$100,000 to SG$200,000 each.

Early this month, an ethnic Chinese from Indonesia won the biggest jackpot payout of SG$2.2 million.

In April, a French tourist struck a SG$1.66 million jackpot.

Today, the sentiment has changed dramatically compared to the gloomy projections just before the launch, when most analysts were predicting failure.

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